Maximize Your Travel Experiences by Connecting with People in Your Industry via Social Media

This week I have the absolute pleasure of a work/vacation ‘down under’ in Australia and New Zealand. Since I’m an uber-connector, the first thing I wanted to do when the trip became a reality wasn’t to cuddle koalas (although that’s #2) was to meet lots of wonderful entrepreneurial women.

Thanks to Twitter, I’ve connected with about a dozen fabulous women and have some fun meetups planned during my trip. The easiest way for me to find the type of women I want to connect with who share my goals/intentions is to do a search via Twittergrader and search first for city and then scan the list for who looks like an interesting match for you based on bios/profiles and then simply send them a “@” message to get their attention and say something like this: @____ I’ll be in Auckland 3/26-27 and organizing a tweetup for women in biz, would love to connect, pls DM if interested. This is such a simple, easy tool for us to reach out to new people we’d like to connect with and just consider the possibilities for business and new friendships!

Now, one thing I’d definitely remind you that if you’re going to approach complete strangers and invite them to meet with you, always meet in a public place during daylight hours is best and meet in small groups if possible. Also, I’d recommend that you have a good look at your Twitter profile and link before you send out requests because no doubt people will be checking out your sanity and background before they accept your invite (at least I always do!!)

Enjoy meeting new people IRL (in real life) in foreign cities when you have the chance, your trip will certainly be more rewarding if you do. Connect with me on Twitter, I’d love to meet up on your next trip to Utah, I’m @startupprincess

Kelly King Anderson is the Founder and Managing Director of Startup Princess. She loves to connect, say hello!

Fear Management vs. Fear Leadership

Fairy Godmother, Danielle LaPorte writes:

The song of an entrepreneur…

Secretly, I’m afraid we won’t raise the money. But it’s okay. I can plow through that fear. We’ll raise the money, and everything will be okay. We’ll raise the money and stand the business up. We’ll have to hit our targets, get the customers in the door, run hard with the marketing plan. Yeah, it’s scary. What if they don’t come? What if they come but don’t buy? What if they buy, but not enough? It’s okay, I can manage that fear. It’ll work. I’ll make it work and everything will be okay. We’ll do this.

What if you don’t do it? What if you, say, “fail”? Does that mean that fear wins? How much do you need to be more than “okay”?

While we’re busy managing fear, fear can be managing us. It’s still creeping in, grabbing at our pant leg, begging to be paid attention to. And fear can always find a reason to get your attention – that’s it’s job – to get you to feed it. But what about the flu? (feed me!) But what about the market? (feed me!) But what about ten years from now? (feed me!) But what will they think? (feed me!)

Beyond coping with fear there is fearlessness. Because, here’s the white hot truth: if you go bankrupt, you’ll still be okay. If you lose the gig, the lover, the house, you’ll still be okay. If you sing off key, get beat by the competition, have to hand in the keys, you will still be okay. Ask anyone who’s been through it. They’re more than okay. People survive and they learn to thrive. It’s life. It’s business.

Don’t manage your fear. Lead your fear. Take charge. When fear climbs on your shoulder and starts nattering in your ear, here’s what you do: You stand as a master. You tell Scaredy Cat where you’re going, risks and all, and you convert Scaredy into a champion to help you get there. You say, lovingly but firmly (because ultimately the Scaredy Cat in you just wants some love and you’ve got plenty of it to give,) “Yep, we may fail, it’s possible. This is risky. But we’ll still be okay. Because that’s who we are. We’re the kind of people that are okay, no matter what. So remember that invincibility and let’s get to work. There’s a new land to discover and the only way to find it is to keep going – cliffs, cash flow, agony, adulation and all. If you keep your mouth shut and your eyes wide open, we’ll get there sooner. We’re doing this. We’re doing this because we want to. Because this is what it means to do life.”

And then watch what Scaredy Cat does. She’ll look perplexed for a minute. She’ll nuzzle up, as if to say thank you. And then she’ll strut down the street to help you recruit some new business.

Danielle is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, a motivational speaker, CBC TV commentator, and lead author of Style Statement. She helps entrepreneurs rock their career with her signature Fire Starter Sessions.You can find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Practical Strategies for Shifting the “I’m Not Enough” Gremlin

Fairy Godmother Laura West writes: It happens to all of us small business owners. Things are hopping along in our businesses: we are growing our lists, increasing our visibility and attracting new clients, and then suddenly… BAM! The gremlin inside you starts whispering sweet nothings, accompanied by a dull ache in your stomach or a tightening of your throat.

“You’re not really doing it right.” “What you’re doing isn’t enough…it’s not good enough, big enough, powerful enough or thorough enough.” “What are you thinking? Do you really know what you are doing?” and the “See what she’s doing…you’re just not doing it right/fast enough/making enough money”….

What starts out as a quiet question suddenly moves to a slow simmer, and then if not kept in check, it’ll rise to a full boil! The voice impacts our sleep, our creativity, our confidence, our ability to think clearly, and our willingness to take action. It’s usually thoughts running rampant through our minds, but it’s also accompanied by a variety of signals from our bodies: headaches, the inability to stay awake at our computer in the afternoon, upset stomachs, constriction in our throats, shallow breathing. And if not paid attention to, then it’ll go into the form of a cold, a sinus infection or some other physical symptom which finds a toe-hold in our bodies.

Everyone, business owner or not, has some versions of this destructive self-talk. From working with 1000’s of creative, heart-centered entrepreneurs, I know that we are often even more susceptible to this. We’re sensitive to the energy around us, we’re thoughtful and respectful of others, and we are often feelers. For passion-based business owners who want to transform lives, it’s important to acknowledge this mindset dance.

It’s even more critical to your success and business growth that you know how to deal with this common business ailment –before it gets out of control. Here are my seven favorite tools for creating awareness and shifting your energy quickly:

1. Morning and Evening Journaling – This doesn’t have to involve pages of witty writing. A simple list of what’s happening and how you feel will do. This reminds you to check in with your mindset, thoughts and emotions. Creating awareness of what’s going on for you twice a day will reinforce the importance of checking in with yourself. The awareness alone will create shifts in your energy and ability to shift into a more life-enhancing place if you need to. I journal every day (especially at Creative Bagel Time), and I find these journaling pages can be especially helpful reference tools for a check-in and attitude adjustment in the future.

2. Conscious Breathing – Whenever you notice that you feel anxious and the gremlin is having a chat party inside, just the simple act of breathing consciously can help shift your energy. Consciously and in a relaxed way (not forced) — breathe in to receive, and breathe out to release. I do this with my clients quite often at the beginning of a teleclass to help them get present and be in our virtual space together.

3. Exercise – Ask your body what it really needs. My body needs exercise, stretching and movement every day. Just moving your body will move your energy and get you out of your mind and back into your body so you can access all of you – not just your relentless analytic side. 

4. Guided Visualizations – I find sitting in quiet meditation difficult, so I’m a big fan of guided visualizations. I have all different types loaded on my iPod. I will often take a break in the middle of the afternoon and listen to my angels, take a guided imagery walk to my favorite peaceful location, or just relax listening to positive affirmations about my body. It’s enough to shift my energy and reconnect to my creativity and that possibility-energy.

5. Nap – Sometimes, especially when I’m going through a big growth phase in my business, I find I need more sleep. I’ll get sleepy in the afternoon, and my gremlin goes crazy with the thoughts that I’m procrastinating, and I need to do more, and…. And I’ve learned to trust that I often just need a 15- or 30-minute nap to recharge. It’s like my body needs to keep up with my new expanded sense of self.

6. Business Girlfriends – Science says that women connecting to other women releases oxytocin. This feels good! Know which business girlfriends you can give a “911-call” who will let you share your gremlin thoughts. You’ll feel good releasing, you get great chemicals to support a feel-good mood, and your friend will let you know how fabulous you really are. A true win-win. Just make sure it’s a supportive friend who understands you, and you can reciprocate!

7. What Would Your Business Goddess Say? This is one of my favorite exercises for women entrepreneurs. We don’t often relate to being the CEO of our business, but we can step into the identity of a Business Goddess – even if just for a moment. When you look at your business, project, or situation from the place of being a business Goddess – suddenly your perspective will shift and new ideas, new opportunities or new ways of looking at it will emerge.
Keep these Energy-Shifting and Gremlin-Busting strategies posted in your office so you can quickly refer to it and shift back into your graceful powerful and creative self!

Laura West, Center for Joyful Business, Laura West is a certified professional coach, writer, speaker and the President and Chief Creative Officer of The Center for Joyful Business. She is the creator of the Joyful Business Guide, a business attraction system blending law of attraction principles with smart business designed for solo-entrepreneurs and business owners. Laura is also a contributing author to the book, Spirit of Women Entrepreneurs, and has been a contributing writer for Motto magazine, Inside Gwinnett newspaper, and Connections, a publication for image consultants. Laura also publishes an award winning blog, Cafe Entrepreneur, and a bi-monthly ezine, Joyful Business.

Three Steps to Cutting the Umbilical Cord on your Business

Fairy Godmother, Heather Ledeboer writes: I have given birth four times.  Without fail, the umbilical cord has always been cut.  This severing act ends one part of our mother/child journey and begins another.  While we are no longer connected physically, we are indeed bonded to each other.  Over time, my children grow more independent. It is my job to see that process through in the best way I can and with as much love and wisdom possible.

In many ways, being a business owner has proven to be very similar to that process.  Learning when and how to let Mom 4 Life grow and in what ways to step back and let others step in to help has taken time.  However, cutting the umbilical cord of my business has been much different than it was with my children–It has been more of a process rather than an event.  This year I committed to do all that I could to “cut the cord” and run my business rather than allowing it to run me.

Operation “Don’t work all day” had a soft launch last fall when I first carved out an office space for myself in our home.  Given the fact that I have been a business owner since 2003, I figured it was really about time that I took control of my time and set some boundaries so that I had more time for myself and my family.  The formal implementation of my plan took shape about a month ago and I am determined to see it through.

This plan has taken much longer for me to act on than it should.  Because I enjoy what I do and have a tendency to be a perfectionist, I try to stay on top of work around the clock.   However, I have discovered that no matter how much I work, there is ALWAYS more to be done.  I have come to accept that I will never be fully “caught up”.  Every time I hit send/receive I am “behind” again.  In fact, in the area of emails, the more work I do, the more work I create for myself because most emails elicit a reply which in turn requires a reply from me and so on.  I have decided that even if I can’t be entirely caught up, I can certainly be on top of my priorities and structure my day in a way that will encourage professional progress.  Here are the three steps I have taken to “cut the cord”:

Step #1:  Set office hours

• I have a home office (that is also part of my laundry room:).  It isn’t glamorous but it has gotten my lap top off of my kitchen table which is a key part of cutting the umbilical cord to my work.
• I have worked out a schedule with my husband that allows me to work in the morning for 45 minutes while he takes my son to school and again in the afternoon for about an hour while he picks my son up from school (taking our two other children with him each time).  This has become my work time.

Step #2:  Take control of my inbox

• I have set my emails to only send (but not receive) unless I specifically hit the “send/receive” button (which I only do at the start of each work period).  This allows my responses to get out in a timely manner but prevents me from even seeing the emails that are consistently coming in.  This allows me to have an “end in sight” that I can work toward in catching up for the time being.
• I have set up an email automatic reply alerting others of my work schedule.  It says,

“Thank you for your email!  In order to spend the most time with my family (and not answering emails), I only answer emails 1-2 times a day M-F.  You can typically expect to get a reply from me in 24-48 hours.

If your need is urgent and related to Mom 4 Life you can call our toll free number 800-928-4905 and Angela (our customer service assistant) can help you.  Otherwise you can try me on my home number 208-683-3076.

Thank you for your understanding!”

This gives me peace of mind that those contacting me are not only aware of my schedule but expecting me to abide by it.  I also know that if something is urgent I have provided a way to be contacted.

• I set up a separate “personal” email account and gave it to my close friends and family members letting them know it is to be used for non-work emails.  Knowing that I won’t find work related content in these emails allows me to check this email account as desired without worrying that I will get sucked into working during non hours.  This is also the only email account that I have access to via my phone.

Step #3:  Create a system for my to-do list

• If something comes to mind during my off hours that I need to remember to do I email myself a reminder from my non work email and then breathe easy knowing that I will see the reminder the next time I sit down to work.  Another service that can be used for the purpose of sending an email to your inbox via a voice message is Jott.
• I have a spiral binder on my desk that has my to-do list.  There is an urgent and non urgent column.  Each day I check my list and make sure that the urgent list is caught up.  If I finish my emails early then I will tackle a non urgent item on my list.

Perhaps you have a cord that needs to be cut or have successfully installed your own “don’t work all day” plan.  I would love to hear what you have done or plan to do to reach your business goals this year.  Let’s run our businesses (not the other way around) together!

Heather Ledeboer, Mom4Life, Heather Ledeboer is passionate about helping other moms succeed in business. Her passion is directed at finding fantastically fresh mom invented products and offering them on her website, http://www.mom4life.com with free shipping to all US locations. She also enjoys writing on the topic of business and has a particular pet peeve about providing excellent customer service. Twitter @mom4lifecom

Please Respond to Expressions of Gratitude with “My Pleasure” Instead of “No Problem”

How often do you hear the phrase, “No problem” in response to an expression of gratitude?  Lately I’ve noticed that “No problem” is winning in popularity over “My pleasure” or “You’re welcome” and I feel impressed to make a mention here and to eradicate it from my vocabulary as well. I’ll tell you why…

When we respond with “No problem” to someone thanking us it may appear that we aren’t fully accepting their gratitude.  In fact, when I was sincerely thanking someone last week and he said “No problem” I had to say, “No, really…I really appreciate it. I want you to understand how much your kindness meant to me.”  When he repeated “No problem” for the second time it felt like I had to keep saying thank you because he didn’t allow me to fully express my appreciation.  Plus, on some level the “No problem” response subconsciously makes us wonder…”was it really a problem to help me out? will it be a problem next time?” if I have to wonder perhaps I’ll think twice about asking for a favor in the future.

Am I the only one who believes we should go back to traditional phrases such as “You’re welcome” or “My pleasure”?  I think “My pleasure” expresses the most joy and enthusiasm for serving. What are your thoughts?

Kelly King Anderson is the Founder of Startup Princess. She can be reached by commenting on this post or on twitter @startupprincess

Love Local: An Extra-Special Message for Anyone Trying to Save the World

Hello, my name is Danielle and I’m a recovering Savior of the World. I used to think that my self-worth depended on my vegetarianism, my activism, futurism, my pro-this and anti-that. Had halo, would preach. Had ‘isms, would teach.

I still wrestle with issues of spheres of influence (like one might wrestle a greased boa constrictor while wearing a bikini – with great difficulty), but my circle of devotion has gotten decidedly more focused, or at least more proportioned. My a-ha on this came like a bolt of lighting, at a swanky event, in which I cried an ugly cry that I’ll never forget.

I was at a weekend retreat in the Catsklills for thinkers thinking global-size thoughts. We fancied ourselves as change agents. And we were. The group of us was made up of economists, UN officials, socially responsible CEOs, media personalities, and bonafide spiritual leaders. Conversations were deeply meaningful and our love for our individual and shared causes cohered into a whole lotta serious inspiration. One of the afternoons was allotted for individual silent time and we were encouraged to reflect in solitude and then reconvene.

I spent some of my time in a dilapidated tree house in the woods. I journaled. I laid on the grass and cloud-watched. I thought about my “causes” and how much I poured into saving the world from all the things I thought it needed to be saved from. And my thoughts brought me home. Literally.

A few weeks before, my man and I got engaged. I was deep into thought about what commitment to a life together meant. The enormity of it, the sweetness of it, the terror of it….I thought of all that was required to be poured into it. And something in me cracked open that overcast day: I realized that most of my love was being poured outward, not homeward. It felt more noble to help people in far off countries and in future generations than it did to – simply – love the one I was with and love him well – the way he deserved to be loved.

We reconvened, sat in our fancy chairs in a circle, preparing to discuss our world- enhancing thoughts that had surfaced in our silent solitude. I wasn’t aware of it for a few moments, but I was crying.

(Now, before I go any further with this story, it’s essential that I tell you that I’m not a public crier. I don’t even really like groups. I’ve done too many group workshops and those moments when sister gets up and bawls her eyes out about family of origin stuff or mister breaks down about his mean mother… well, I appreciate it. I feel deep compassion. Sometimes I admire those group-shared collapses. But I don’t do it. My snot-gobbing heaving cries are sacred and best had in my bathtub or day bed. Except on this day, in front of the dignitaries and laureates.)

The facilitator noticed me quietly whimpering. “Danielle, clearly you’re moved. Would you like to share?” People were looking concerned and then I started to feel concerned because I noticed that I was really crying, like, my body was crying for me and there was no stopping it. For some reason, I grabbed the mic and I let ‘er rip: “I, I, I just realized…” I was sobbing now, “I’ve been so fixated on the global, that, that, that… I’ve missed the love in my own home. I’ve, you know… I’ve missed the…the center of my circle.” People nodded. I don’t know if they related or thought I was pathetic. The silence was deafening.

And then I blew my nose and whimpered, “We can move on now.” It was gross. And so we did. We talked about the layers of service and devotion and where we chose to put our energies. It was awkward and then beautiful and then powerful.

Everyone was really uncomfortably nice to me after that. I felt like they’d all seen my underpants, and I wasn’t wearing any.

Am I happy that I slobbered all over my white shirt and blew my cover as a cool cucumber in front of those agents of change? Nope, not really. I’m just not that ego-less and evolved. I could have done without the high-exposure blubber fest. But it happened. And it put the world crises into perspective for me. And I went home. And for probably the first time, I was really home when I got there.

Danielle is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, a motivational speaker, CBC TV commentator, and lead author of Style Statement. She helps entrepreneurs rock their career with her signature Fire Starter Sessions. You can find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

4 Steps to Organizing Your Life: Creating a Household Time Map

Fairy Godmother, Kim Flynn entrepreneur and mother of 4, writes the following article: I like to compare a person’s time management to a junk drawer. If you are like most people, you have a junk drawer that is full of everything from legos to batteries to rubber bands to chapstick. Everything is tossed into one big collection, and even though it all may not be, it looks like a big pile of junk because it isn’t organized.

Now think about your weekly schedule. Your schedule is probably full of everything from ballet class to making dinner to date night to checking email. If everything is thrown into your schedule with no rhyme or reason it looks like a big pile of junk. In time management terms, a big pile of junk translates into a big pile of stress.

If you are trying to run a household, raise kids, and run a business all at the same time you have to have a time map to keep things organized and stress-free. Here is a picture of my junk drawer. Yes, that is a “lego” section that is actually labeled. Before you think I am too crazy, however, know that I organized this junk drawer in its present state when I moved into my home five years ago. I did not clean it out for this picture. This is how it looks every day . . . because it is labeled. If you create a space for everything in your life, things tend to magically stay in their place without much effort from you.  Let’s do the same thing for your weekly schedule.

You will need a paper & pencil for this so go grab one . . . I will wait.

STEP #1: Write down all the basic things you do (or you wish you would do) every week. This is not the time for minutia—don’t include making your bed or getting the mail! Most people end up with 10-20 things on their weekly schedule. Here are some examples:

• Clean the house

• Deep clean 1 room of house

• Work on business (you may need to do this several times a week)

• Home office/pay bills

• Errands

• Kids’ tutoring

• Hobby time

STEP #2: Print out the empty weekly time map at the end of this article. Notice that there aren’t exact hours on the time map. If you try to organize your time “to the penny” you will drive yourself crazy. “Oh no! I only have 5 more minutes to feed Jonny before I need to get started on laundry!” Creating false stress is NOT what we want to do.  Here is a sample time map.

This weekly time map is organized by time chunks: morning routine (more on this later), morning, afternoon & evening. For a relaxed lifestyle, I recommend only ONE activity in each time chunk. A busy person will have one or two activities per time chunk. If you have more than 2 activities in any one time chunk I would be able to spot you in a crowd. You are one of two kinds of people:

Weekly Time Map: Household
	Moving Monday	Tutor Tuesday	Windex Wednesday	Thorough Thursday	Field Trip Friday
	Routine	Routine	Routine	Routine	Routine
Morning	business meeting grocery shop	work out with Becca work on business		work out with Becca work on business	field trip Friday & errands
Afternoon/ Kids home		kids: tutoring	clean house	home office/bills	scrapbook kids piano lessons
Evening	family home evening	Photoshop class		deep clean 1 room	date night

1. You look like you have it all pulled together. People comment on how much you can accomplish. You are probably president of the HOA, PTA, as well as your own company. You work hard because you feel like you need to earn your worth. You aren’t living life to the fullest because your life is too full. Ironically, life will feel more substantial, more meaningful, when you choose to do only the most important things and marinate in the empty space that you will create. It is time to edit—not because you can’t, but because you can!

2. OR—You look like your life is falling apart. You don’t answer email for days, if not weeks. You tell people in conversation, “I just can’t think about that right now. I have to get through ___ first.” People worry about your stress levels. You feel frazzled. You aren’t living life to the fullest because your life is too full. It doesn’t matter that others can get more accomplished & not feel stressed out. Your life is too full for YOU to handle. Embrace this reality & prepare to make changes.

Back to the time map. Starting with scheduled events (ie Piano lessons on Tuesday afternoons), place each item from your list onto your time map. Remember: one item per chunk is the ideal. Use a pencil because you will be switching things around a lot as you work.

Tips:

• Put like-items together. Run errands after your kids finish soccer practice.

• Most people like to clean the house & go grocery shopping at the beginning of the week

• Plan work time when the kids are in school. If you can’t, it is time to hire a regular, weekly babysitter.

• Limit each child to 1 activity per week. Unless you are encouraging your child to excel at something at a professional or Olympic level, they really don’t need more than this. We tend to think that our kids need piano, dance and spelling bee club all at the same time. What our kids really need is a mama who isn’t yelling at them all the time because our lives are too busy!

• Include AT LEAST one hobby time for you. If you don’t have a hobby, block this time in for you to GET a hobby! This is your spice of life, ladies. Treat yourself as well as you treat your kids. Take a class in something you find juicy!

• As you place items in your time map, think about WHEN you like to do this activity. Mondays are usually really busy for me so I keep them as unscheduled as possible. By Thursday & Friday I am ready to relax, so I schedule my hobby times then.

• Try to limit driving to 2-3 times a week. Getting kids out the door is one of the most stressful activities for me as a mom. I limit my driving to grocery day and errand day. When I take the kids on field trips, or when I schedule doctor appointments, I always do them on the same day as errands. The kids don’t mind going to the bank on the way to the museum.

• If at all possible, plan your business work schedule to be three times a week without kids instead of five times a week with kids. You can afford that $5/hour for your babysitter because you aren’t out shopping every day any more!

• Don’t schedule more than 2 items in any 1 chunk of time. If you have too many items to fit into your schedule, this is not a matter of time management. You just have too many things in your life. Start crossing out the less vital ones (resign from the HOA, cancel your daughter’s ballet lessons, etc). Do this TODAY. It feels so amazing to have that weight lifted.

• Don’t list individual tasks of your business work yet. Just schedule “work on business” as many days as you need to. Look for how to create your business time map in a separate post. It is organized a little differently.

• If your business is a full-time, out of the home business, you have 2 choices:

  • #1 is to edit your household schedule substantially. In my humble opinion, your children are better off having a relaxed mom and a less active schedule than a hysterical mom driving them to swim practice every other day and deep cleaning the banister at midnight. Sorry, there are only 24 hours in the day and you are a human. You have to cut back.

  • #2 is to make changes in your business. You set this baby up to run, and you can change how it is run. Hire help; give up a less productive time-consuming division; make the changes needed to create more space in your time map. This is your business—make it work for your life.

STEP #3: Create a cute phrase that goes with each day’s purpose. This helps you and your kids memorize the schedule. As cheesy as this sounds, I wake up every morning morning and think, “Oh! Today is Tango Tuesday!” or whatever the phrase for the day is. (I imagine myself doing the tango as I walk down the grocery aisle). It gives my day a purpose and a mission.

Tips:

• Don’t use negative adjectives. Would you rather wake up knowing that you are facing “tedious Tuesday” or “tranquil Tuesday”?

• Here are some examples to get you started:

Moving Monday

Macy’s Monday

My Monday

To-do Tuesday

Tango Tuesday

Tranquil Tuesday

Tidy Tuesday

Working Wednesday

Workout Wednesday

Wal-mart Wednesday

Windex Wednesday

Thin Thursday

Thankful Thursday

Thorough Thursday

Fun Friday

Field Trip Friday

Football Friday

STEP #4: Create a morning routine. You will do this every morning when you wake up, before you begin your first “morning” time chunk. Here is my morning routine:

• Make my bed & clean room

• Clean my bathroom while my babies are in the bath

• Do 1 load of laundry

• Do dishes while kids eat breakfast

• Defrost food for dinner

I love my morning routine. I love walking into a bedroom that is always clean. I love having a time to bathe my kids. I can keep up with the piles of laundry if I always do my daily load of laundry. I love knowing what is for dinner at 10 am instead of waiting until 5:30 pm.

Tips:

• Notice that “check email” isn’t on the list. For me, checking my email involves following up on email, and often takes over an hour. This needs to be scheduled on my time map in a “work on business” time.

• Limit your morning routine to only 4 or 5 items. If you have 10 items on your routine, it won’t be a memorized routine. It will be a slave of a to-do list.

• Don’t put menial tasks like “get dressed” on your morning routine. That is, unless you have a serious problem forgetting to get dressed.

Your household time map is complete! Although you will probably memorize yours within a few weeks, it is helpful to keep it handy. I tape a copy of mine in the front of my planner so I can refer to it whenever I have a time choice:

• Should I schedule a doctor appointment on Thursday or Friday?

• Do I have extra time to take an evening photography class?

• What non-essential items can I delete from my schedule to make room for a new business venture?

If you keep your time limited to one or two events per time chunk, you can maintain the organized, purposeful, but relaxing lifestyle that you want. Just like that junk drawer!

My Morning Routine:

Weekly Time Map: Household
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	Routine	Routine	Routine	Routine	Routine
Morning
Afternoon/ Kids home
Evening					© Kim Flynn 2010

Kim Flynn is the mother of 4 and the founder of 3 active businesses: Tutoring Connection LLC (2000), Brenson Property Management LLC (2004) and Fabulous Living (2009). She has received business recognition as “Woman of the Year” at the 2006 Thanksgiving Point Women’s Conference, and was the director of the 2008 Women’s Conference in Provo. She has also been featured in Utah Valley Magazine and on the radio program “Ask a Woman.”

Family Traditions – A Whole New Year For Starting or Continuing Them

Fairy Godmother Carol Rice, co-founder of CherishBound writes the following article: No matter whom you call family;  tradition will make your bonds stronger.

Family traditions can:

-Create good feelings and help with a person’s identity and sense of belonging.

-Impart values and foster cultural customs.

-Give us a sense of security and continuity.

-Give us a way to celebrate life; the big and the little moments.

-Are part of the glue that holds families together by giving us a way to spend time together, deliberately.

As a young mother I worried about whether or not my husband and I were developing “traditions” for our family.  I knew they were important, I’d seen “Fiddler on the Roof.”  (I can still picture Tevia snapping his fingers over his head as he belts out the familiar song “Tradition!”) But I didn’t know if my little family had any; and if we didn’t, how would we create them?

We all long for a sense of heritage that we imagine traditions will give us, but so often I meet people who think it’s hopeless because they don’t think anyone passed on worthwhile traditions to them and they feel in turn, they don’t have anything they can pass on, or they feel it’s just too late because they didn’t start soon enough.  It’s an amazing thing when hearts and minds are opened to the reality that the first step is as simple as realizing that you can be the first step…tradition can begin with you.  (And ironically, in the process of developing traditions, most of us discover there are traditions that have been passed onto us; we just didn’t realize it.)

Here’s a few ideas to get you started in the upcoming weeks:

New Year’s – Write bad habits/ bad experiences on paper and burn them in a pit and then write out your plans/goals for the New Year.

Chinese New Year –  Give your house a thorough cleaning, hoping to sweep away all the ill-fortune there may have been in the family to make way for the wishful in-coming good luck…then give each child a red envelope with crisp new dollars for the new year!

Civil Rights – Tell the story of Martin Luther King/ Rosa Parks/ Underground Railroad and then ask each family member “What makes a hero/heroine to you?”

Valentine’s – Have a “love box” then during Valentine’s week encourage anonymous notes of love and encouragement to be dropped in for each family member.  Read them at the table each night that week.

St. Patrick’s Day – Serve Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast and Corned beef and Cabbage for dinner (on a table decorated in GREEN)

Every Day:  Use post-it notes to leave messages of encouragement, gratitude, and love on your child’s made bed, bedroom door, pillow, or in on their sandwich!

Birthdays – Decorate the dinner table with balloons and/or crepe paper and have the birthday person’s favorite dinner.

As you start your own traditions this year consider recording them in a journal like this one at Cherish Bound. At the end of the year you’ll have a record of some of your most treasured moments.

Living as a Creator with Limitless Capacity

Fairy Godmother Heather Madder, Life Coach and Author shares a message about how to creat a life and business with limitless capacity (clip from Startup Princess Touchpoint Conference 2008).

Defining What to Stop, What to Start, and What’s Possible for 2010

This month on Startup Princess we’re focusing on PLANNING: How to Plan EVERYTHING, so you’re equipped to Make LOTS of Wishes and Make them Happen in 2010. Watch for lots of posts in our Startup & Grow and Life Balance categories on the subject. Here’s my personal strategy for how I define what to stop, what to start, and what’s possible. Read more

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